FallenHero96 wrote:Keep Neal away from Jeffrey. Wasn't he Neal's center for his first season here, when he had 1 goal in 20 games? I'd let Sutter center that line.

That was Letestu. Jeffrey tore his ACL earlier in the year prior to the Neal trade.

I think Jeffrey has actually done a pretty solid job filling in for Malkin. There seems to be a fair amount of criticism towards him simply because he isn't Malkin, but he's played a good two-way game.

Actually, during Neal's first year here, both Letestu and Jeffrey were his centermen...at least for a while until Jeffrey got hurt. Crosby and Malkin were both out by the time Neal showed up. What a terrible year that was. I went to a pens/habs game that spring, pens lost 3-0. We had already acquired Kovalev but Jeffrey was still playing. I remember because he ripped one off the crossbar about 2 minutes into the game, and the pens never sniffed a goal the rest of the way.

You sure? I just did a quick check on wiki and it had Jeffrey tearing his ACL February 11 and Neal being traded February 21...

I think most of the criticism towards Jeffrey is not necessairly his fault, as he's out of his element as a Top-6 center. The fact that he and Sutter weren't switched for good after the first Boston game is inexplicable, but it's a moot point now I guess with Geno likely returning Friday.

meecrofilm wrote:The fact that he and Sutter weren't switched for good after the first Boston game is inexplicable, but it's a moot point now I guess with Geno likely returning Friday.

If I were to wager my life savings on why Sutter stayed on the 3rd line, it is because Geno wasn't going to be out long and it allows Sutter/Cooke/TK more time to gel as a unit because we need at least 3 lines rolling come playoffs.

meecrofilm wrote:The fact that he and Sutter weren't switched for good after the first Boston game is inexplicable, but it's a moot point now I guess with Geno likely returning Friday.

If I were to wager my life savings on why Sutter stayed on the 3rd line, it is because Geno wasn't going to be out long and it allows Sutter/Cooke/TK more time to gel as a unit because we need at least 3 lines rolling come playoffs.

The pens would also likely have only 2 effective lines. Keeping Sutter on the third line was better for the balance of the line-up. TK-Jeffrey-Cooke looks like a 4th line. I'd rather have 1-3-3-4 then 1-2-4-4.

meecrofilm wrote:The fact that he and Sutter weren't switched for good after the first Boston game is inexplicable, but it's a moot point now I guess with Geno likely returning Friday.

If I were to wager my life savings on why Sutter stayed on the 3rd line, it is because Geno wasn't going to be out long and it allows Sutter/Cooke/TK more time to gel as a unit because we need at least 3 lines rolling come playoffs.

The pens would also likely have only 2 effective lines. Keeping Sutter on the third line was better for the balance of the line-up. TK-Jeffrey-Cooke looks like a 4th line. I'd rather have 1-3-3-4 then 1-2-4-4.

Except with Geno out, the Pens have had only one effective line. Every other line pretty much did crap at even strength except for Sid's line, save for the Boston comeback. Moving Sutter up would've given us two effective lines instead of one, but hey, at least we managed to keep on winning somehow.

And Cooke-Sutter-TK doesn't have any chemistry to break up, so that doesn't really fit for me. Plus, I'll be shocked if that's the 3rd line going into the playoffs.

Idoit40fans wrote:Its extremely obvious why he was producing and why his production dropped. It has also been discussed in other threads. Yes, it was a bad question and was inexplicably formatted like a poem.

-Staal started as center for a few games, the line was just awful.-Jeffrey played like 2.5 games there and they looked pretty good-Letestu finished the year there and they were just awful. Also some time during the Letestu era, Kovalev quit.

-Staal started as center for a few games, the line was just awful.-Jeffrey played like 2.5 games there and they looked pretty good-Letestu finished the year there and they were just awful. Also some time during the Letestu era, Kovalev quit.

This.

And as everyone else has said, Neal will be fine when Malkin comes back.